


Dead Eyes and Sacred Weapons

by LeoBananaPhone0829



Series: The Bad Batch and The Reaper [11]
Category: Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Cartoon)
Genre: Brainwashing, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Magic, Medical Procedures, Multi, Original Alien Species - Freeform, Polyamory, Post-Order 66 (Star Wars), Witches, badassery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 12:41:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30055644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoBananaPhone0829/pseuds/LeoBananaPhone0829
Summary: Life after the war isn't what Flora thought it would be, not with the Empire breathing down everyone's neck. When clone troopers start to go missing a team of specialists are sent in to investigate. She won't let them suffer under the Empire's control any longer.An Order 66 AU fic.
Relationships: Clone Force 99 | Bad Batch/Original Female Character(s), Original Clone Trooper Character(s)/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Bad Batch and The Reaper [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1665424
Comments: 10
Kudos: 22





	Dead Eyes and Sacred Weapons

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome! I've been so nervous to post this! I've been working on a lot these past couple of months and I can't wait to get back into writing again!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back! Glad to see everyone again, thank you for understanding as I took waaaaaaay longer off than I wanted to, life just got a little crazy there for a couple of months.

Flora hums as she walks through the shop, "Ferox, can you get me some more Shadow Flux Root, please." She picks up the almost empty jar of dried grey petals and places it on the front counter. 

Axin barely looks up from his datapad, handing her a mug of tea, "Ooo, what does that one do? Send you into the next realm?" He taunts with a smile on his face. 

She hears Ferox laugh from the back room, "You wish!" He shouts. 

"You sure we gotta keep him around?" Axin stands and kisses her cheek, taking the jar in hand. "I'll get it for you, I think he's studying." 

"Thank you!" She sing-songs her reply as he walks away, "The Grave Geranium looked a little low too so I grabbed those as well." Axin tells her setting the heavy jar full of red flowers on the desk. 

She looks back at the man, "Who said you could be this perfect?" 

"All in the genetic makeup, Baby." He gives her a cheesy wink as his hands settle on her hips. 

She wraps her arms around his neck, "You're terrible." She mumbles before leaning in for a kiss. 

"You're both terrible. Get a room." Ferox groans as he walks out of the back room.

Axin throws his head back and laughs, "See what I'm talking about?" 

\--------------------------

Hunter stands at the holotable, arms crossed over his armored chest as Major Olden briefs them, "We've lost thirty-six clone troopers on this level alone in the past two months."

"Pardon my interruption, sir. Just clones, what about the stormtrooper patrols?" Tech asks. 

"Balloons full of paint are being thrown at them, but they aren't disappearing into thin air," Olden tells him. 

"What are our orders, sir?" Hunter asks. 

"Your team is to investigate why exactly these men are going missing. A team of commandos should be able to handle that? Am I correct?" Olden sneers. 

"Yes, sir. We'll gather intel and report back when we can." Hunter nods. 

"You are dismissed." Olden waves them off. 

"Tech, what do we know about level 3204?" Hunter asks the trooper. 

"Most of the population is from Alderaan, it's decent compared to the levels above and below it. The median income level is still pretty high for it being that low." The slicer rattles off. 

Something about the level seems familiar as he looks through the pictures, but he can't put his finger on what exactly. "When were these taken?" 

"Intel grabbed them yesterday morning, sir," Tech tells him. 

Hunter zooms in on a store, a woman in a long skirt seems to be washing a window, her arms decorated in a multitude of tattoos. A male of the same species leans against the doorway, they both have the same leaves tattooed on their scalps. "Tech, can you get me a species for these two?" 

Tech rounds the holo table, plucking the datapad from his hands, "Could be Mirialan, but the tattoos don't match, so I'm not entirely sure. I can look into it.” 

Hunter continues to look at the woman, the shot is from afar so he can’t make out much but she seems to be laughing, her mouth open and head thrown back. She looks happy. “We should scout during the day, ask some business owners and other locals if they know anything before going any further. It might make it easier on us.” Hunter suggests. 

Tech nods, “I will get the others, let them know we have a mission, and I’ll see what I can pull up on our mystery woman as well.” Tech turns and walks down the next hallway, nose still buried in his datapad. 

Hunter takes another look at the datapad in his hand, the shop seems to be a sort of trinket and book shop, he bets it smells like mold and dust, he wrinkles his nose at the thought of having to step foot in the little shop to question anyone, but something just felt strange about the woman, and he planned to find out what.

\------------------------------------------

Axin looks over at Flora as Franz continues to talk about Stormtrooper’s movements throughout the level, her bag full of medical supplies sits at her feet. He laces their fingers together and she leans against him, “You look like you could use a nap.” He whispers to her.

“That’s because I could use one. Wanna take the rest of the afternoon off after this? Ferox can handle the shop while we relax.” She whispers back. 

“A whole afternoon to lay around with you? That sounds amazing.” He tells her, curling in closer. 

“-There’s two clone trooper patrol units scheduled for this week, less than usual. They might be onto us, Flora are you still up for a procedure for them?” Franz asks. 

She nods, “Everything is set up and I’m restocked on supplies. Just let me know the day of and I’ll make sure everything’s ready.” 

Axin remembers when she removed his chip, he hadn’t even had a name yet, coming to the Coruscant Guard right before the war ended. He and 34 were some of her first patients.

“Alright, everyone needs to be careful as usual. This meeting is dismissed.” Franz concludes and dismisses everyone. 

Axin bends and picks up the medpack, slinging it over his shoulder, “I can do that, you know.” Flora scoffs playfully. 

“I know but you don’t have to.” He smiles at her. 

“You spoil me.” There’s a flush through her cheeks. 

“If I didn’t who would?” He smirks. 

“Come on, Ferox is probably waiting on dinner.” She changes the subject, pulling him along. 

Axin laughs, “He’s old enough to cook his own food!”

\-----------------------------------------------

Tech looks around, trying to get a gauge for the population of the level, “I found out the species of those two targets. They seem to be Tithean. It’s a smaller planet in the Quelli sector. A smaller population, primitive in some aspects but they use a form of elemental magic making them proficient in tracking and combat as well as healing. Each skill has its own faction. They seem to be from the warrior class,” He tells Hunter. 

Hunter motions for Wrecker and Crosshair to split off in the other direction, “What’s the fighting style like?” 

“I couldn’t find very much, they use a series of glass weapons, daggers, arrowheads, spears, there’s even documentation of staff-like creations,” Tech tells him. 

“Glass is impractical,” Hunter observes. 

“That’s where it gets strange, most of the weapons have symbols carved into them, apparently the magic holds them together.” Tech reads off his vambrace. 

He can hear Hunter sigh into his comm, this wasn’t what he was expecting. “Make sure we pay her shop a visit.” His Sargent tells him. 

“Of course, sir.” Tech nods, going back to his research. 

\----------------------------------------------

She stares at the dagger and staff in the box, “Ferox, where did this even come from?” 

He shrugs, “No idea. A Kel Dor in a cloak dropped it off yesterday. I figured I wouldn’t bother you on your afternoon off and just tell you about it today.” The boy peeks into the box again. 

Flora stares at the gorgeous crystal, she picks up the box and takes it to the backroom, “Ferox, you’re in charge of Axin while I’m in the back.” She calls over her shoulder. 

“Hey!” Axin calls from behind the stacks of books. 

She sets the box down on the heavy wooden table and gently picks up the dagger, she turns it in her hand, the handle has the usual protection runes but the stamp of the family name is missing. She sets the knife to the side before carefully examining the staff, noting the long, jagged crystal points on each end.

“Woah, what is that?” Ferox sticks his head into the back room. 

“It’s got Tithean runes and wards but there's no crests.” She picks up the staff and spins it a few times, it’s almost perfectly weighted. “This is closer to Dathomirian than Tithean, I’m not sure why it was constructed this way.” She places the weapon back into the box, “Go back up front, I’m going to go through some books before I come back up there.” She tells her brother. 

“Fine. I’m playin’ with it later, though.” Ferox tells her with an eye roll. 

She places the dagger back in the box and closes it up, sliding it to the corner of the table as she huffs a stack of old spell books onto the surface. When she inherited the store from Miss Estrella she hadn’t anticipated having to go through all of the books and artifacts tucked into the nooks and corners of almost every inch of the place. 

She squints to read the ancient language when Axin runs through the back room, “Troopers,” Is all he says before he hauls himself up the stairs to go hide in a closet in their apartment. Why would troopers be here during the day? They were inspected last month there shouldn’t be another for at least two. 

She knows something is wrong when Ferox walks into the backroom, eyes wide and chest heaving. 

“It looks like you’ve seen a ghost,” She jokes, “Do I need to get the sage? I told those spirits not to bother you.” 

“There’s two standing in the front room,” His voice is low, clearly frightened. 

A wave of energy comes from the box in the corner, a sense of doom and anxiety washing over her, she moves over to it, grabbing the dagger and sliding it into her sleeve, her voice is deadly serious, “Who’s out there, Ferox?” 

“S-Sargent Hunter and Tech.” He stutters out. 

She freezes at his words, her heart pounding and ears ringing, “Are you sure it’s them?” She asks. 

He nods, “It’s not them, though.” He whispers, knowing that Hunter can probably hear them. 

“Alright, go upstairs. Take my blaster and give it to Axin. Don’t move until I come up there and tell you it’s safe. Okay?” She orders.

He nods and scurries off through the shelves, grabbing the pistol from its hiding space, and flies up the stairs. 

She smoothes down her skirt and takes a breath before walking out of the backroom a smile on her face, “Hi, what can I do for you?” She asks. 

Hunter stands there, arms crossed over his chest, shifting his weight from foot to foot, his helmet sitting on the front counter. His hair is a bit longer and there are dark circles under his dead eyes. Tech looks over the variety of jars on one of the shelves near the door, his eyes hold none of their old curiosity, just the same deadness that plagues the rest of them.

She can’t believe they’re here, standing in front of her, neither one of them has a lick of recognition in their eyes, clearly under the influence of the chips. She wants to ask where Echo, Crosshair, and Wrecker are but she knows better. She has to be smart about this.

\----------------------------------------

Hunter looks the woman over, she seems nervous. She wears a long black skirt and dainty flat shoes, her top high necked, the shoulders and a small portion of the chest cut away. Tattoos decorate the exposed skin, it seems that no space is left uncovered. There’s a smell that he hadn’t anticipated, it came and went with the boy but it’s heavier on her, the smell of a forest after it rained. It’s familiar and comforting, something tugs at the back of his mind but he stuffs it back down.

Tech finally wanders back over, “We are investigating the disappearance of some clone troopers from this level. Do you know anything about this?” he asks her. 

The woman frowns in thought, “I’ve heard rumors from other business owners, they’re saying that we’ve been getting more stormtrooper patrols than normal but people going missing? I’m sorry I don’t know anything.” 

Hunter watches her closely, listening to her heartbeat and breathing patterns, she seems to be telling the truth. 

“Do you mind if we take a look around? Just a precautionary measure, that’s all.” Tech tells her. 

“Sure, go right ahead, the back is a mess right now. I’m still trying to set up the apothecary portion of the shop.” She calls to him as he walks around the counter. 

Hunter steps away from the counter, leaving his helmet as he looks through the shelves that house books and trinkets. “A few of the others on this level told us that you haven’t been here that long. You set up a clinic of sorts for the community?” 

“When the Empire took over they cut a lot of our community funding, it’s incredibly expensive to go to a real doctor, most don’t unless it’s a dire emergency but there’s not a lot I can’t handle.” There’s a look of pride on her face, in her smile. 

“Do you have medical training? What did you do before this?” He asks.

Her smile falls from her face, “During the war, I was a medic. I was trained in trauma surgery.” Her next words are laced with bitterness, “The Empire wasn’t keen on a non-human taking a higher position in one of their facilities. I was downgraded to teaching and within three months I had been discharged.” She sighs, “Now, I run the shop with my brother.” 

Hunter isn’t surprised to hear her story, the Empire has been looking strictly for humans, and nat-borns are quickly replacing the clones as well.

“What’s your name, ma’am?” He asks. 

The small smile is back on her face, “Flora Grimm. My brother is Ferox Grimm in case you need his name as well.” 

Tech comes back out of the backroom, a tooka in tow, “She has remarkably unique markings, where did you find her?” 

\-----------------------------------

Tech’s question almost makes her heart stop, she wants to respond with the real answer, _“Your drunk ass found Glitch in the alley behind 79’s.”_ But, she doesn’t. She smiles at him, “I found her in an alley behind a dumpster, she was quite sick at the time. Poor thing could barely breathe.” She watches as Glitch mews in Hunter’s direction, rubbing against his greaves and boots, she remembers him but he doesn’t remember her. He doesn’t remember any of them. 

There’s a thump from upstairs and she cringes. “What’s above us?” Hunter turns to her, his eyes cold and hard. 

“It’s an old apartment, I have an electrician up there right now, he’s clumsy, likes to drop tools. It scares the daylight out of me at least once a day.” She lies through her teeth. “Trying to get everything back up to code is taking a little bit.” She smiles at him again, that seems to get him off her back a little, she'll use it to her advantage for now. 

“Who lives there with you?” Hunter asks, pressing forward, he’s trying to test her on the information she has already given him, using his armor and height to intimidate, the skull tattoo makes him look terrifying. 

“Just my brother, Ferox.” She replies with a polite smile. She doesn’t tell him about the clone trooper she’s technically illegally harboring. 

Hunter continues to stare at her, using all his senses to figure her out. He used to use them to make sure she was okay, checking her out without having to touch her, but now he uses it against her, almost like an interrogation technique. But, she’s smart, she knows exactly what to do to get him off her back, take even breaths, keep calm, look him in the eyes. 

The dagger up her sleeve buzzes with energy, almost reminding her to keep her cool for just a bit longer. 

Glitch hops up on the counter with a _mrrow_ , rubbing against Hunter’s helmet, “No, Glitch. Get down.” She tries to shoo the beast away. 

Tech seems to perk up at her name, his eyes gleam for a moment, just a flicker of something, “Glitch?”

“Someone once told me that she looks like the system glitched halfway through designing her, that’s why she has that half and half pattern.” She smiles at the tooka as Tech examines her again. 

Hunter picks up his helmet, sliding it on, “Thank you for your time, ma’am.” With a nod, he disappears back into the crowd. 

Tech looks at Glitch for a few more moments before he pulls back with a small, “Huh. Thank you for allowing me to look around, ma’am. Your cooperation is appreciated.” His eyes look up to her, she stares at him a little longer, hoping to see that gleam again but there's nothing there, just dull, brown eyes behind his goggles. With a final nod, he leaves, following Hunter into the midday crowd. 

She slips to the floor behind the counter, tears filling her eyes. She hoped they were dead, taken out by the Empire or a mission or something, anything to save them from that fate. She takes the dagger out of her sleeve, turning it in her hand as the tears stream down her cheeks, she wonders about Crosshair, probably set up on a rooftop nearby, watching over his squad. Where was Wrecker? Patrolling the area, watching for anything through his helmet. And gods, Echo? Where was Echo?

She reaches over, pulling open a drawer, pulling out a holo-photo. She remembers the mission to Hoth like it was yesterday, the cold biting into their skin as they met with the intelligence officer. In the photo she can see Wrecker in the background arms full of snow, a crazed smile on his face as he goes after Crosshair, she can almost hear his laughter. Echo and Hunter are on each side of her, Hunter’s nuzzled into her cheek, his hair blowing in the cold wind. Echo smiles, the hood of his parka pulled over his head. She has her hands on Tech’s shoulders as he kneels, typing away at his vambrace in front of them. 

She drops the picture back into the drawer and slams it shut, no. No, this isn’t how she should be acting, mourning over them like they’re dead. They were right there! How many chips has she removed from troopers? How long has she been able to keep this going? Almost a year now? No, she will save them, she has to. 

She stands, wiping her hands on her skirt, and drying her eyes. She moves through the back room, taking the stairs two at a time. She makes a beeline for the closet she knows Axin and Ferox are hiding in, knocking on the door, “It’s me, you can come out now.” She tells them. 

Axin peeks out first before opening the door, “Is everything okay? Ferox has your blaster? Since when do you have a DC-17 hand pistol?” He asks. 

She dodges his questions, moving around him and dropping to her knees as she drags a duffel bag from the corner, “It’s a long story. I need you to go call Franz and the others. Something’s come up.” She digs through the bag, finding the modified datapad. Axin stares at her, looking lost, “Now Axin!” She shouts. 

He stumbles away and she powers on the device, “Come on, come on. Please.” She almost begs the device as it boots up. It should still have all of their current missions on it, there was a time she would have dread knowing their fate by looking at the screen but now she has to know. 

A shriek of joy erupts from her lips when she’s able to pull up the most recent report, a mission to this exact level to find out why clone troopers had been going missing. She watches as it updates in real-time, a report being written out as she watches: _...Plan of action: Night raid, evidence was found in multiple establishments that indicate the presence of missing clone troopers at one point in time._ She curses, she told them to get rid of any and all evidence when they began this operation, _More information is needed on Florrae Grim and Farix Grim._ Her blood runs cold at the sight of her and Ferox’s names in the report. The only thing that gives her hope is the fact that whoever was writing this report butchered their names, something that's just a little too odd for her to looks away from, but it seems to be her only saving grace, without a proper spelling they can't find any of her files. 

“Franz is gathering who he can. What is that?” Axin asks as he approaches her crouching form. 

“I was a medic during the war. This was modified by one of the guys on my team, I’ll explain later, go get ready.” She tells him as she locks the pad. “I’ll be right down, please go get ready."

Axin stops her, "I didn't know you were a medic. Why didn't you ever say anything?" 

She shrugs, looking up to him, "You never asked, I figured you knew," She points a thumb over her shoulder, "My medpack has the Republic cog on it. Standard gear. I just thought you never wanted to talk about it." 

Axin steps back with a small, "Oh."

"We'll talk later, okay? I promise." She stands on her toes, kissing his cheek. 

\----------------------------------

Axin knows something isn’t right. She’s been frantic ever since those two troopers showed up, they looked different, their armor modified and customized, one of them looked vaguely similar to a clone but he didn’t see the smaller one, his helmet didn’t leave his head.

“Flora, what is going on?” Franz asks, crossing his arms over his chest, the white-haired man stands at the end of the holotable as Flora places projectors around the room. 

“The trooper that questioned you, what did he look like?” She dodges his question. 

The man sighs, “He was missing an arm, red and grey armor, looked sickly, his helmet was incredibly specialized. The other one was huge, scar over one side of his face, I couldn’t tell if his eye was dead or if it was cybernetic.” He tells her. 

“That was Echo and Wrecker.” She straightens, “We had Tech and Hunter. That leaves Crosshair but he was probably doing recon from above.” She tells them. 

“Wait,” Axin holds up a hand, “You know these guys?” 

She looks down at her feet, pulling her cloak tighter around her, “Knew them. I worked with them. They’re under the influence of the chips, but these will be much much harder to remove.”

Franz balks at her, “You’re telling me they’re clones?” 

“Yes, I’ll go over it when the others arrive, you contacted those with prior military experience?” She asks, this Flora is so much different, her posture is straighter, her words are clipped with professionalism, she sounds like an officer. 

“There aren’t many of us down here, I took the liberty of picking a few others as well. A retired bounty hunter, the martial arts instructor, and Sara from the bakery, her biceps could kill a man.” Franz tells her. 

“You're probably right on that. Good thinking.” She laughs.

She continues to set up holoprojecters and pulls out her modified datapad when everyone starts to gather in the small hall, they murmur and whisper to each other as they watch Flora straighten and gather herself at the head of the small holotable.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice. We’ll get right into it. How many of you were visited by troopers today?” A few hands go up. “Who saw the troopers?” More hands. She nods, looking down at her datapad. 

“Did the Guard get new armor? None of them looked like what we usually see.” Riin speaks up, the retired intel officer hasn’t lost her spark. 

Flora moves to her first holoprojector, “They aren’t part of the Guard.” The image comes to life, Clone Force 99, fully suited up, helmets on and weapons brandished, the six members celebrating Echo’s new armor, making them like a cohesive unit. “These clones are part of an experimental unit, they were engineered with desirable mutations.” 

\--------------------------------

Axin had heard rumors about these guys, they weren’t allowed to fail or else they would get decommissioned, somehow they kept beating the odds. 

Flora adjusts her cloak, fiddling with the closure for a moment. 

“So what, they’re a kind of specialist unit?” Franz asks.

“To this day they still have a one hundred percent success rate. They’re the best the Empire has.” She tells them. 

Axin stands, clearing his throat, “They aren’t allowed to fail. If they fail, they get decommissioned, more than likely they will be terminated.”

Flora has a strange look in her eye, a coldness he’s never seen before, “That is correct, unfortunately. But, that has also made them stronger, smarter.” 

“Okay, so we need a plan.” Sara states. 

Flora moves to the other five holoprojectors turning them on one by one, stats and files are attached to each scan of them, “I already have one.”

Axin looks back to the group picture, he knows there are five members, Echo, Wrecker, Crosshair, Tech, and Hunter but the sixth member is smaller, dressed in the same color armor, a medpack on their back and a DC-17m strapped to their chest. He wonders if maybe they died during a mission or were already terminated. He shudders at the thought. 

\----------------------------

Flora looks at the group in front of her, a dozen people or so, a few with military careers, others with a couple of enlistments under their belts, but most of them are just everyday people with little to no training. They’re going to need a force miracle to make it all out alive. 

“So, what’s the plan?” Riin asks, she has a smile spread across her face, of course, she would, the Pantoran is probably itching for some action after being sidelined for almost a year. 

“Let’s start with what needs to happen before the raid tomorrow night.” Flora points to a four-block area, “These four blocks need to be completely evacuated before nightfall. These guys don’t care about collateral damage, they don’t care about the civillian death toll they cause. That’s not their jobs.” The room goes silent as it sinks in, these people’s families are in danger. “We will deploy smoke, enough to cloud our movements from their sniper and to throw off the Sargent, I’ll get into them in a bit. We need to jam any and all of our systems, Echo and Tech can get into anything.” 

“I can handle that!” A young man raises his hand. 

“I forgot to tell you about Goggles. He can slice into just about anything.” Franz tells her. 

Flora smiles, “Good, I’m going to need you to get into their comms. We need to know their movements.” 

\--------------------------

Axin looks at the photo again, something about the sixth member makes his skin crawl, he has no idea why. They just seem so… familiar in a sense. 

Flora adjusts her cloak again, shifting it further over her shoulders as she listens to Goggles, as Franz called the kid, talk about the equipment he may need. 

Axin’s eyes flit over the others stats, all varying heights, weights, it looks like a solid team, sniper, demo and weapons, engineer, slicer, and their Sargent who seems to be proficient in tracking and hunting. 

“How do you know this plan will work?” Kaid, the hardened bounty hunter asks, never one to trust anything others say. 

Flora pauses for a moment, emotions wash over her face as she tucks her hand under her cloak pulling an object out. 

A pauldron, the same one the others were wearing today, a white skull and two blood red nines written in Aurabesh. That’s why the sixth member looks familiar, it was her. 

“I was one of them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I edited the crap out of this chapter, apparently, my brain shut off after midnight and I just couldn't write properly. I fixed some of the dialogue between Axin and Flora mostly. 
> 
> I hope everyone is staying safe and sane! Happy one-year anniversary of lockdown! (Gods, what the fuck?)

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if there are any grammar or formatting issues, I've started typing out fics in Google Docs just so it's easier on me. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and leave some feedback!


End file.
